I've got a few Grenadier western figures (and assorted miscellany) that have been waiting the better part of 40 years to fulfill their gaming destiny. Maybe those don't count since they are still not painted. I know I had some ACW troops that took 15 years to get painted (and their brethren are still waiting). I am sure I am a piker compared to some of the old hands on here.

Now where is that Hinchliffe set from Beatties on Wimpole St, next to the Royal Soc of Medicine, late 70s? I just know I have several guns and crews…somewhere…..in bare metal!

If I make it another 30 years the answer then will be my Front Rank Carabiniers a Cheval. Some of the best castings and worst proportions and posing I have ever bought. I simply could never make the effort to paint them.

35 years. I bought some Gedemco resin triremes way back in the last century. A friend got tired of hearing me say "Sometime soon!" and bought them off me. They were on the table within a month.He added Old Glory to the mix. They look great, with 15mm hoplites etc on washers.

Oops, didn't read the original post properly. 30 years and counting, because I buy minis for their beauty, and don't thereby feel obliged to do anything else at all with them. Doubtless, matters seem different in Puritan countries.

I read the question to als how long you owned a group of figures before actually painting them. I just finished painting two boxes of Eureka WAS Dutch that I bought as part of their 100 Club. The postmark on the boxes was 2008.

I have a small number of the original Leicester microtanks bought in the early 70's that have yet to see paint. From a little later some Peter Laing medieval, most got painted but didn't do quite all that I bought.

On the other hand, I've assembled and painted 4 carts that I bought at Fiasco on Sunday.

I have 3 boxes of Old Glory (Dave Allsop) Limited Edition Napoleonics (2 Infantry, 1 Cavalry) and several boxes of Civil War (North and South), by the same man. All miniatures have separate heads. These came out I think in the late 80s or early 90s. They were in storage, by my parents, and thought they threw them away.

30-35 years since I started Roman and Carthaginian armies for DBA. About 2/3 painted. Sitting on a shelf in my closet on a piece of newspaper dated Oct 3, 2000 which was the last time I put paintbrush to them. IIRC I painted the elephants at that time. Lost interest in ancients and moved on to SF and VSF. If we talk totally unpainted I have some flats I picked up in 1962.

Yep, mid 70's for some… on a larger scale, I have gobs of Fantasy and Historical figs from the late 70's-early 80's, and entire armies of Greeks and Persians from the mid-80s. Those are my senior Ignorables.

I still have some of my first stuff I bought as a kid in early 90's, sitting unpainted in the attic. That's mostly Fantasy and sci-fi though.

There's lots individual figures left unpainted, even for projects I did paint up. But my oldest completely unpainted project is probably a 15mm Timurid DBA army I bought some ten years ago, and not a single one of them got painted. It waits in a box at home, year after year.

I still have some 25mm Hinchcliffe Russian Napoleonic Grenadiers that I bought in the early 70's. 2 marriages and 4 house moves later I still have my Russian Nappy army although the years have been very unkind to it and dropping them in the bin has crossed my mind a couple of times.

Inspired by a new group of gamers however, they are finally to hand along with some others who need stripping so they may yet see the tabletop – really !

Wow, quite a response. I'm loving hearing about the nostalgia tinged with regret!

So as regards the longest delay between purchase and finally getting a unit to the tabletop after its painted it looks like the longest specific unit was painted 32 years after purchase!

Seems the biggest reason is being tempted by newer things so the old ones slip away.

For me it was a dip in inspiration, combined with the fact all of the uniforms were pretty much the same. Many armies have more variety I think which makes projects easier to tackle in "bite size" chunks.